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    Climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptations: Southern Ocean marine fisheries

    Request Meeting Document
    Document Number:
    WG-EMM-18/P19
    Author(s):
    K. Reid
    Submitted By:
    Dr Keith Reid
    Approved By:
    Ms Belinda Blackburn (CCAMLR Secretariat)
    Publication:
    Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture Synthesis of current knowledge, adaptation and mitigation options, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 627 (2018)
    Abstract

    • The Antarctic region is characterized by complex interaction of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change that produce high levels of variability in both physical and biological systems, including impacts on key fishery taxa such as Antarctic krill.

    • The impact of anthropogenic climate change in the short-term could be expected to be related to changes in sea ice and physical access to fishing grounds, whereas longer-term implications are likely to include changes in ecosystem productivity affecting target stocks.

    • There are no resident human populations or fishery-dependent livelihoods in the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) Area, therefore climate change will have limited direct implications for regional food security. However, as an “under-exploited” fishery, there is potential for krill to play a role in global food security in the longer term.

    •The institutional and management approach taken by CCAMLR, including the ecosystem-based approach, the establishment of large marine protected areas, and scientific monitoring programmes, provides measures of resilience to climate change.